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23 MICHAELMAS TERM 2002 the Quaternary: a Near Death? CAM QUA The newsletter of the GODWIN INSTITUTE FOR QUATERNARY RESEARCH ISSUE 23 MICHAELMAS TERM 2002 The Quaternary: a near death? The normally peaceful world of the INQUA SNS chairman, Dr Zachariasse (University of Utrecht), Commission on Stratigraphy was greatly contacted Phil Gibbard for further clarification of the disturbed of late. Moves to disband the tailed exchanges with Professor Felix Gradstein, the ICS Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy President. Meanwhile, aware of the controversy implied the imminent abandonment of the term generated by his intervention, Dr Castradori resigned Quaternary and the incorporation of the as chair of the SNS Working Group. At Phil Gibbard’s Pleistocene within the Neogene. request, Dr Thijs van Kolfschoten (President of the INQUA Subcommission on European Quaternary Events began in late December last year when Phil Stratigraphy) attended a meeting in February with Gibbard (the Secretary of the Stratigraphy Commission) Professor Gradstein, Dr Zachariasse and Dr Fritz Hilgen received a message from Dr Davide Castradori, the (SNS Secretary) in Amsterdam to discuss the whole Vice-President of the International Commission on matter. In addition, Thijs van Kolfschoten discussed Stratigraphy’s (ICS) Subcommission on Neogene the developments with Professor E. de Mulder Stratigraphy (SNS), stating that he had been appointed (President of the IUGS of which the ICS is a constituent the chairman of the Working Group on Pleistocene body). Subdivisions, organised under the umbrella of SNS after the decision by ICS to disband the Subcommission on Meanwhile, the INQUA Executive Committee was sched- Quaternary Stratigraphy. (It is important to understand uled to meet near London in April 2002 and Professor that up to this point (i.e. August 2001) the INQUA Sylvi Haldorsen (INQUA Secretary General) invited Phil Commission on Stratigraphy was also the International Gibbard to report on the situation. Following his report Commission on Stratigraphy’s Subcommission on the Executive expressed its full support for Dr Gibbard Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS). The role of the and the Commission on Stratigraphy’s efforts and asked suppressed SQS was therefore to become the to be kept informed of developments. responsibility of the SNS. It was agreed that a second meeting with A flood of replies Phil Gibbard’s initial reaction to the the SNS officers and Professor de Mulder arrived from around message was to ask the ICS for clarification should occur and that Phil Gibbard and the world, expressing and, at the same time, to contact Thijs van Kolfschoten could attend as the shock and anger, but Commission members and others to ask INQUA representatives. This took place also resignation. for their advice. A flood of replies arrived in Utrecht on 22 May 2002. virtually instantaneously from around the world, most expressing shock, many clearly angry and a At the meeting it was agreed that merger of the two ICS few, notably those from colleagues aware of the SNS Subcommissions should be an amalgamation, not a ‘takeo- and its parent organisation’s operations, expressing ver’ of the Quaternary by the Neogene. In addition, resignation. The SNS, and its parent organisation the progress was made towards the establishment of a work- ICS, were equally surprised at how their decisions had ing group to subdivide the Quaternary. It became clear caused such a seismic reaction, since they had been that the Neogene colleagues were neither concerned planning this change for some time. with, nor aware of, the stage-scale units in general use in After the Christmas break matters rapidly evolved. The the Quaternary, e.g. Eemian, Wisconsinan etc., nor the marine isotope stage system, which they do not accept as sions by 2008 could be established. Phil Gibbard said a formally-based scheme. Instead their favoured subdivi- that he would be happy to accept this role and all seemed sion was a three-fold large-scale division analogous to the clear. However, in the executive committee meeting stage-scale units of the pre-Quaternary. Such units might held at the end of the conference, it emerged that Profes- be thought to be of limited usefulness to a community sor Gradstein had had some second thoughts and this, used to working in thousands rather than millions of together with protests from Professor D. Rio, the SNS years. Ironically, large-scale units are already in daily use representative, resulted in some slight 'back-peddling'. in the Pleistocene but rather than being of stage rank, The final decision was to invite Phil Gibbard to propose they are subseries; the Early, Middle and Late Pleistocene. plan for subdivision of the Quaternary, and to propose There is also a need to define formally the Pleistocene / the names of three individuals who could take-up the Holocene Series boundary. The working group’s task was officers positions of chair, vice-chair and secretary. Once to identify and define Global Stratotype these papers were received in a satis- Section and Point (GSSP) localities for factory form by Professor Gradstein each of these boundaries. ...pre-Quaternary geologists an executive decision to formally re- were unaware of the detail, establish the SQS would be taken. Finally, it was agreed to ensure the con- time resolution and quality (report: http://www.micropress.org/ tinued usage of the word ‘Quaternary’; of the evidence available. stratigraphy/urbinorep.pdf) a term viewed by pre-Quaternary stratigraphers as anachronistic since it In recent weeks some further rethink- relates to the superceded geological divisions: Primary, ing has led the ruling body of the ICS – the IUGS Secondary and Tertiary. A report of these discussions was Executive Committee - to re-establish formally the SQS sent both to Professor Gradstein and to Sylvi Haldorsen. and Phil Gibbard has been invited to form a new Subcom- mission structure. Following these developments Phil Gibbard was invited - P.L.G. to attend the ICS meeting at Urbino, Italy, 14 – 16 June Comments and views concerning these issues or any 2002 to represent the INQUA Commission on other stratigraphical topics are very welcome and should Stratigraphy and to present the views of Quaternary be addressed to Phil Gibbard, ([email protected]). scientists on formal stratigraphical subdivision. Further information on the ICS can be found on: At Urbino there was a very positive atmosphere. Profes- http://www.micropress.org/stratigraphy/index.htm sor Gradstein on behalf of the ICS stressed how impor- and the Subcommission on Neogene Stratigraphy on: tant they considered it to have a representative from the http://www.geo.uu.nl/sns/ Quaternary community. He also apologised formally for the breakdown in communications between ICS and INQUA. QRA Annual Phil Gibbard presented the Quaternary position, which was well received, it being very apparent both from the Discussion Meeting formal and informal discussions that followed that the pre-Quaternary geologists were unaware of the detail, time resolution and quality of the evidence available. It was also obvious that Quaternary scientists, whilst shar- Land-Ocean Correlation : ing many of the problems common to all stratigraphers, have many that are very different from those of earlier Recent Advancess periods. As the meeting continued it became evident that there 6th - 8th January 2003 was a strong groundswell of opinion against the contin- Newcastle-upon-Tyne ued merger of SQS with the SNS, so much so that by the second day (Sunday 16 June) the merger concept had been dropped. This was reinforced by a ruling from the ICS’s parent organisation IUGS saying that the merger was ‘on Organisers: hold’ since no formal agreement had been received from Dr Darrel Maddy (University of Newcastle) INQUA by the IUGS. Phil Gibbard emphasised that the Dr Antony Long (University of Durham) merger was certainly not the preferred option of INQUA, Dr David Bridgland (University of Durham) but that if the ICS wanted this INQUA was prepared to accept it, pending guarantees that the Quaternary would Online information and registration: be properly represented. Negotiations continued and it http://www.qra.org.uk/meet.html was agreed that the SQS should be reinstated if an active commission group to complete the large-scale subdivi- Notices Geography Zoology Tea Talks Matti Eronen, Professor of Geology and Palaeontology, Thursday, October 24 University of Helsinki, will be a working visitor in the Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group this term. His Impacts of climate change on butterflies. research interests include Quaternary stratigraphy, sea-level Jane Hill (York) history, palynology and dendrochronology. Thursday, November 7 Becky Briant has successfully defended her thesis Fluvial Responses to Rapid Climate Change in Eastern England during The genetic legacy of the Quaternary ice ages. the Devensian glacial period. Godfrey Hewitt (University of East Anglia) Steve Boreham, laboratory manager, has also successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis The Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Tea Talks take place at 5pm in the Part II Palaeoenvironments of the Cambridge District. The Ph.D. was Lecture Theatre on the first floor of the completed part-time over 7 years with the Open University. Department of Zoology. He thanks all those people who have supported his research Everyone welcome. over the years, particularly his supervisors Dr Charles Turner and Dr Colin Forbes. All enquiries contact: R C Preece, (3)36666, [email protected] Petya Blumbach, Katie Greaves, John Higgins and Alison Loomis are new students taking the Quaternary Science M.Phil., replacing Richard Betts, Heather Cheshire, Anna Nelson and John Trehearn who completed the course successfully in 2001/2002. This is the 5th year which the 23rd - 31st July 2003 course has run and a total of eighteen students have successfully completed the course since it started in 1998. At least eleven of these students are known to have continued to PhD research. XVIth INQUA New Ph.D.
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